CASTLE: Andrew Marlowe on Castle and Beckett Heading to the Hamptons, Episode 100, and More

In tonight’s brand new episode of CASTLE, the ruggedly handsome writer takes Beckett out to the Hamptons for a little R&R. Unfortunately for them, the relaxation comes to a premature stop when the duo get mixed up in a case.

To get a little tease of what’s to come, I talked with CASTLE creator Andrew Marlowe about tonight’s hour, “Murder, He Wrote,” the upcoming 100th episode, the documentary episode, and more…

How has Castle and Beckett being together impacted how you’re able to work cases into the show? Tonight’s episode takes place in the Hamptons, for instance…
Andrew Marlowe: Yes, the episode in the Hamptons, that should be fun. A lot of really good stuff in that. That episode is called “Murder, He Wrote,” and the reason it’s called that is because it’s a little nod to MURDER SHE WROTE. They go out to have a nice relaxing vacation in the Hamptons and a case stumbles into their backyard, literally, when they’re about to take a little night swim in the pool. Somebody staggers up, having just been shot, and collapses in the pool. And in MURDER SHE WROTE, the cases were always coming to her. That’s something that hasn’t really happened in CASTLE in our first 85 episodes, but when they’re out in the Hamptons…they land smack dab in the middle of a case when they’re just trying to get away for the weekend and wild hijinks ensue. And by the way, they need some help from New York to solve the case, but nobody from the precinct knows they’re together, so they have to hide that.

That’s a bit troublesome since that means they’ll be lying to cops. Obviously, the New York cops are their coworkers, but it’s not a good start.
AM: That’s right. It’s fun.

What has been the biggest surprise for the writers in putting these two together as a couple?
AM: I don’t know that we’ve been surprised yet. There are struggles that we knew about. We want to keep the banter between them.  We want to keep the tension between them. That’s part of the challenge — to not make everything hunky-dory all the time and to make them real. Keep them real and organic and grounded.

And will the potential reaction from their coworkers help to keep that tension there? We’ve seen them take extreme lengths to keep their relationship quiet…
AM: I think we’ll have a couple good bites at that coming up.

Given your penchant for honoring past shows, have you ever given thought to doing something to pay homage to MOONLIGHTING, given that the curse was “haunting” your show?
AM: Haven’t we been tackling MOONLIGHTING for the past 85 episodes? [Laughs]

Completely. But I wasn’t sure if you ever thought about doing something along the lines of your X-FILES homage a couple years back.
AM: Before we got them together, we were flirting with an episode where they crossed paths with a MOONLIGHTING-type couple who were bitching and complaining that once they got together it was never the same. But we decided to not move forward with that idea because we thought it was too inside baseball. We also knew where we were taking them and we didn’t believe that [was true].

Right, you’ve been vocal for a long time about not believing that getting together would be the end of the road.
AM: I knew for a fact the storytelling would have gotten tiresome if we kept them apart. It would have gotten artificial. All I can do is be true to the characters. And hopefully people will respond and continue to show up, and continue to invest in this ongoing relationship that isn’t over by any means, and I think if that happens, we have a pretty good shot. I just knew that not getting them together would be a big mistake.

Of course. I know you and I discussed that you knew for a while that you wanted Castle and Beckett to get together at the end of “Always.” Now that they’re together, do you have a place where you want them to end up by the end of the year? Or because everything is so new, are you playing things a little bit more by ear?
AM: A little bit of both, to answer your question honestly. I have an idea of where they can end up at the end of this year, and where they can end up at the end of next year that I feel is very organic, but part of what we’re doing is seeing how the two of them as characters evolve through the first handful of episodes, to see if I have my mileposts in the right place. If I have them in the right place, great. But I’m absolutely open to adjusting where those are, depending on how the characters responding to the material.

That makes sense. Are there any plans for us to meet Castle’s father?
AM: I’m hoping so, but for me, I have to get the right story off the ground. It’s gotta be something that is great. We’ve been talking about it here, and we haven’t come up with a version that as great as I want it to be. So, until that happens, I’m willing to be patient. But I’d like to get that story off the ground this year. I have some ideas, but it’s a matter of executing it the right way, and having the right person available for that, you know?

Do you have someone or a couple of people in mind to play the role?
AM: Yeah, but I don’t want to talk about it right now because I don’t want to get it out in the universe. But I do have a couple people in mind that would be great for the role.

And how are Alexis and Martha going to play into the Castle/Beckett story now that they’re no longer in the dark about the relationship?
AM: I am not sure at this point that Alexis cares that much. She’s going to college, she has other shit on her plate. And she’s seen her dad in other relationships before. So I think…for her, it’s a matter of when she invests, if she invests, or if she pushes against it, what point that comes. And I think that comes at a point it starts to feel a little more real to her than, “Oh, dad’s finally sleeping with that chick he’s been with for a long time.”

Could that perhaps come at a holiday event — say, this year’s Christmas episode — where you’d think Alexis might be used to spending time just with the family?
AM: It might. It just might. It might not. But it might.

Hmm. I know it’s a good bit away, but have you given any thought to the 100th episode yet?
AM: I’m just starting to think about it…it’s going to be coming up before I know it. I’m starting to put some stuff together, but I don’t have anything firm yet.

It’s a pretty great milestone, and it’s often fun to see what they’ll let you do as a writer.
AM: It is. It is, to see what they’ll let you do. I think it’s a little too late for them to let us do the animated version of the show for the 100th episode. I think you have to get the animation in ahead of time. Unless we do it SOUTH PARK-style. [Laughs]

I think it’s about nine months to turn that around…but it can be rushed. So if you really want it, you might be able to squeeze it in if you start pitching ABC right now.
AM: I just have to find a reason to do it.

It’s ABC…there are graphic novels for the show, you could figure it out.
AM: When we figure it out, I’ll let you know.

There’s also a documentary-style episode coming up. What can you tease about that?
AM: That one’s a lot of fun. It’s great to break the fourth wall a little bit and have our characters mug for the camera. It’s great to get a little insight into who the people are once they know there’s an audience out there. I’ll just say Jon Huertas (Esposito) has never been funnier.

I was going to say, I feel like Esposito is going to be the one mugging the most for the camera.
AM: Yeah. It’s pretty fun.

What’s the Esposito and Lanie relationship going to be like this season?
AM: Stay tuned. That’s shorthand for I haven’t figured that out. I don’t want everybody to be in a relationship. You have Ryan with Jenny, and Beckett and Castle together. So that will be an on-again, off-again relationship.

Are there any other crazy episodes you can tease?
AM: We’ll see. I’d like to find our “Blue Butterfly” of this year. It was really refreshing for us to do the documentary episode where we could break from the narrative structure to tell a case story. It was really great for us to do an episode that was more of a “blue skies” show with Castle and Beckett out in the Hamptons. But anything further, it’s still a little early.

Will we be learning more about Gates?
AM: Yeah, we will. We’ll have some fun bites at her. And she’s somebody who was not particularly warm last year, and I think a lot of the audience struggled with her, as we wanted them to; we wanted something for Castle and Beckett to push against. But I think we get to open her up a little bit this year. She doesn’t stop being who she is, but we do get a better sense of her personality and what’s going on in her life.

I will say, I think my favorite Gates scene the show has done so far was her final scene with Beckett in the season premiere. I really enjoyed the nuances of that scene.
AM: It’s a process of opening people up. I feel like I like seeing new characters through the eyes of familiar characters. So when she came in, she was in a no-win situation. She had to establish authority in the precinct, and she was also replacing somebody everybody loved. So Ryan, Esposito, Beckett, they were not going to naturally have a great relationship with her to begin with because she’s an interloper. So the fact that she came from IA was not helpful. So they weren’t really being fair to her, but that’s the way they perceived her.

But over the course of the year and the episode [last season] where the mayor was under suspicion, there was a really nice scene between Gates and Beckett where she talked about the obligations of the job which I thought humanized her, but didn’t let down that iron front. Towards the end of the year, she opened up a little bit more, but she still served that role as that by-the-book person. And there are certain lines you don’t cross. I think we’ve seen her be a little warm towards Beckett and pull Beckett into the fold, and at the end of episode 1, she says, “I hope to earn that respect,” which is that acknowledgment that “I know who I am in your life. I know the position I took. It’d be great if we could get beyond that.” But she’s still going to try and do things by the book.

It was also great in [season 4’s] “Cuffed,” where she was not going to let people at her precinct be in danger. She was going to go out there and fight for them. I like dealing with the complexity. I like dealing with characters that have many different faces that they show the world at different times before you get a complete picture.

On a grander scope, do you know where you want the story to ultimately end up?
AM: Yes. [Laughs]

Have you talked with the actors about whether they’ll be willing to be around for as long as you hope the show will be?
AM: I think every show has a natural lifespan, but I think the ultimate goal for any TV show is to find the moment it’s time and go gracefully away; that allows some closure for the fans and allows some room for fans to fill in the blanks and have fun in their own imaginations. I think that’s the best version of it. We’ll see if fates align and give us a few more years so we can get to that moment of grace.

–

CASTLE airs Mondays at 10 PM on ABC.

Related:

CASTLE: ‘Probable Cause’ Photo Preview — Castle’s In Trouble!
CASTLE: ‘Murder, He Wrote’ Photo Preview — Castle and Beckett Get Some Couple-y Time in the Hamptons!
CASTLE’s Andrew Marlowe: ‘The Chapter of Not Knowing is Now Closed’

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